Laundry History

The evolution of the washing machine, as demonstrated in this barn, is a representative example of this changing domestic life. For many centuries, sailors used to place their clothing in a cloth bag, tie the back to a rope and throw it overboard, letting the ship drag it for hours. The principle was simple. Force water through the clothes to remove the dirt. But in the household, before running water and electricity, washing clothes took a staggering amount of labor. To wash, boil and rinse a single load of clothes could take 50 gallons of water, and which had to be hand-carried from a pump or well, hand-wringing, rubbing and lifting the clothes could expose women to caustic substances in the soaps. The whole process for a household's laundry could take an entire day or more of backbreaking labor. In 1846, a patented washing machine imitated the human hand moving cloth over a washboard by using a lever to rub the clothes between two rib surfaces. This machine was sold in the U.S. as late as 1927. The first electric clothes washers in which a motor rotated the tub were introduced into America. About nineteen hundred.